


I told you so

by gghero



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Blood and Injury, Cynicism, Funeral, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Smoking, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, e rated just in case, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 18:22:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3906151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gghero/pseuds/gghero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I told you so.”</p>
<p>To Maxie’s opinion, people gave too much importance to soulmate’s marks. No, Maxie had been far more preoccupied by his plans, that’s why he had ignored that black mark in his wrist.</p>
<p>Until that fated day that ended with his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I told you so

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a request in Tumblr that I decided to write instead of draw as per usual. I hope the requester doesn't mind.
> 
> Anon requested an Soulmate AU in which your soulmate's last words are tattooed on your body and either Archie or Maxie have "I told you so", so he only finds out his rival was his soulmate all along as he dies after protecting them from Kyogre/Groudon.
> 
> This was originally going to be shorter but turns out I'm a bit of a sadistic and I also added a funeral aftermath to all of that.
> 
> Heads up: Maxie treats the whole death issue with a lot of cynicism and some insensibility, so it may be a bit uncomfortable for some readers.

“I told you so.”

Maxie looked deadpan at the words tattooed on his wrist, savoring every inch of bitterness they left in his tongue as he pronounced them out loud.

Four words that had been there ever since he could remember, four words that sealed his fate as he had heard them from his soulmate’s dying voice. Few hours before the incident, Maxie would have laughed if someone had told him he wouldn’t be able to get those four words out of his mind.

To Maxie’s opinion, people gave too much importance to soulmate’s marks. What was the point on knowing someone is your soulmate right before they die? What if the person with whom you’ve spent all your life, to whom you gave your everything and even formed a family with... turns out to be a simple nobody after discovering their last words didn’t match those in your body?

“Why are we destined to this... to destiny’s cruel whims?”

No, Maxie had been far more preoccupied by other matters. Like summoning Groudon and bringing Hoenn a whole new perspective, a whole new way of living and developing of humankind. That’s why he had ignored that black mark in his wrist.

Until that fated day that ended with his life.

_There it was. The slumbering behemoth awaited, half-submerged in a pool of vividly red lava, the hot liquid swirling around Groudon’s petrified body. The air was incredibly hot and rare down there, Maxie thought, but it didn’t matter. After all, all he had to do was awakening the beast with..._

_He put a hand to his pocket and took off a crimson, big gemstone with the Greek letter omega engraved onto one of its facets._

_The Red Prism gave off a faint red pulsing glow that seemed to follow’s Maxie’s own racing heart beat. He was close. He was so close that nothing ever could go wrong at merely steps away from the beast._

_Except from, maybe, them._

_“Maxie!” screamed a familiar voice from behind. He turned around, startled as he recognised that meddlesome child’s voice. Of course, she_ had _to turn up to frustrate his plans once again. Didn’t she get tired of running across the whole region behind them? Maxie shrugged it off as he took another step towards Groudon._

_“Maxie, don’t do it!”_

_That was when he froze, unable to react as he heard another voice._

_Not Archie._

_Out of all the people, not him._

_Maxie bit his lip, disgusted. What a hypocrite, as if he hadn’t been chasing after his own wild dream and antagonizing him for years. And now... he wanted to play hero too, accompanying the girl to stop his plans? Maxie laughed coldly, as if he didn’t know Archie wouldn't hesitate to push both May and him into the lava for the sake of Aqua’s own plans once he’d got him to stop Magma’s plans._

_Or should he say..._ if _he got him to stop Magma’s plans?_

_Turning his back to the entrance of the cave, he climbed up to where Groudon’s petrified vessel awaited._

_“Max...ie!” gasped Archie, tired from the race through the hot chambers of the Seafloor Cavern. Who would have known the very essence of the Earth core could make his way inside of an abyssal cavern like that? “You’re... you’re making a huge mistake! That thing is gonna kill us all!”_

_Maxie hinted a satisfied grin. “What would you know about Groudon’s powers? This is only going to be beneficial for everyone, don’t you understand?”_

_“Maxie, listen to us!” shouted May, catching up with Archie shortly after . She wielded one of her pokéballs in her hand, ready to battle._

_Maxie stepped a bit closer to the lava pool. The heat that radiated from there was starting to fog his glasses. Turning around to face at the newcomers, he held the Red Prism up in the air as he shook his head._

_“I’m sorry if this is not how you planned things to be.” His voice was trembling out of pure emotion. He felt powerful. He felt amazing. “But this is how_ I _planned them to be, and I’m not going back now because you are unable to see things the way I see them!”_

_All of a sudden, the Red Prism started giving off a blinding light, bathing the whole room in red. Then the floor started shaking, making Archie and May stumble a bit as they covered their eyes. Not Maxie, though. Everything was going according to plan, he was prepared for that._

_He turned around to admire how the pokémon regained life. The lines on its body started giving off light as well, beating like the crystal’s glow. Its grey body was becoming red like the very lava it was sleeping in. Maxie’s smile widened as Groudon opened his eyes and blinked several times. He turned around again, still holding the Prism in his hand. He wanted to see their faces as they stared in awe at the pokémon._

_“Now that Groudon is awake, everyone... everyone will thank me, the Great Maxie, for this. See, it’s all for better.“_

_May opened her mouth in horror as the beast raised a claw in the air, ready to strike “Maxie! Behind you!”_

_It all happened so fast. The redhead turned his head around just in time to see a red and black claw descend upon him. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he saw those sharp nails draw near, closing his eyes as if getting himself ready for the mortal blow._

_But suddenly, Maxie felt himself be tackled to the ground by a strong, big body, and right after, he heard a piercing scream of pain next to him._

_He opened his eyes to see how Groudon turned around and proceeded to dig his way out of the cave. But, more worrying than that, he saw Archie’s body laying in front of him, a gaping wound dyeing the side of his wetsuit dark red._

_“No...” muttered Maxie, feeling his chest heavy as he watched Groudon escape and Archie scream once again in agony, bleeding profusely as he tried to move._

_“Archie!” screamed May, running towards him. Maxie tried to stand up, his ankle sending a piercing pain up his leg. He clenched his teeth._

_Why did he have to do something like that?_

_Tears rolled down May’s cheeks. She couldn’t take her eyes of the injury that was starting to stain her hands as she struggled to do something. She couldn’t help retching a bit at the smell of fresh blood._

_“Scamp, no... no, don’t look,” said Archie, wiping the tears off  her face and covering the wound with his other hand. “I’m going to be fine, but I need ya to go get some help. Maxie here,” he said, glancing sideways at the redhead, who was still sitting on the floor in shock, “will take care of me.”_

_The girl nodded, muttered  “Everything is going to be okay,” and stood up, staggering out of the cave._

_Archie coughed, resting his head over the hard ground. Maxie limped his way over him, his whole body numb. Just a look at the injury and he knew his end was near. He gulped down, not without struggling to do so because of the lump in his throat, and knelt besides him. Carefully, he placed his hands on his head and laid his head over his knees._

_“I told you so,” muttered Archie, then coughed violently as Maxie’s eyes widened. He suddenly remembered. The mark. The words._

_Everything felt surreal. From the crimson stain that covered his stomach, clashing horribly with that perfect blue scheme of his, to the way those words echoed in his mind. But it was real. It was very real._

_“A-Archie...?” managed to say the redhead, unable to unhinge his mouth. He felt a single tear roll down his cheek. “It can’t be... Archie!” he shouted as he shook his shoulders forcefully._

_“I- I’m still here...” breathed the larger man ever so slightly, clutching his abdomen._

_So... was that all? Had it just been a false alarm? Maxie didn’t know why, but he felt his heart shatter a bit. Was that... disappointment? No. Not right when he was dying. The biggest problem at the moment was other. Maxie felt himself be overcome by a silent fury. What a fool he was, how wrong had he been. About Groudon, about his beliefs… about Archie._

_“Ye screwed up big time, didn’t ye?”_

_Maxie nodded quietly, pressing his free hand against the man’s abdomen, brushing his fingers against Archie’s. His blood was still warm as it slipped through his hand, but his body was getting colder and colder each minute._

_“Why did you do that?”_

_Simple question, difficult answer. He coughed a bit, looking at the cave’s ceiling. The little vapor in that place’s atmosphere was transported towards it, where it rained back to the floor as small droplets that almost after touching the floor evaporated again. Even in a place like that, water found a way to continue its circle._

_“I… guess it doesn’t matter now. What matters is that you’re okay.” A tear ran down his cheek as he looked into Maxie’s eyes, his lip trembling. “I knew this would happen sooner or later, even though I- ngh! - … I told you so.”_

_With that, he exhaled his last breath, his body suddenly becoming a heavy burden over Maxie's body. He felt his lungs shrink, and his body unable to function reasonably anymore._

_“A-Archie? Y-you knew?" He shook his shoulders, his inert body not responding and Maxie panicking. "Archie, what are you talking about? You can't go... You can't go, you have to tell me...!"_

_It wasn't long before two thin but strong arms separated him from Archie's body. He screamed and kicked, he made noise like he'd never done before. He needed to get everything off his chest before it was too late - it was already too late, but he refused to believe so. Eventually, Steven managed to calm him down. The blue-haired man knelt down to examine Archie, as Maxie managed to stand by him, knees wobbling, but there wasn't really need to check his pulse; a small pool of blood under him and half-opened, lifeless eyes was the last Maxie saw of him inside that cave._

Lifeless, cold blue eyes that had been blinded and stood still, but fixed nowhere at all. Maxie had the feel he could never forget that sight, no matter how much time was left for him. He deserved it. He deserved the ghost of the soulmate he had failed to protect haunting him forever.

The redhead had forced himself to assist to Archie's funeral. He had forced himself to hear over and over those cliché phrases one could normally hear at every funeral ever. Somehow, he was expected to have anything to say on his own as well. 'Archie used to make my life impossible. I ended his' didn't precisely make the most moving funeral speech ever. But it was the fucking undeniable truth.

In the end, he had accepted to read a few lines Matt had had the kindness of lending him from his speech upon Tabitha’s request. Not that Archie's loyal friend had been able to finish what he’d prepared for himself. He had had to leave the room amidst tears he probably didn't want anyone to see.

Next turn had been Maxie's. He could almost feel everyone's eyes piercing him, looking at that hypocrite of a guy who merely days ago almost destroyed everything and caused their beloved leader, their brother, their friend's death, hundreds of eyes piercing through him as he read mechanically those words. Words that sounded unreal, meaningless in his head. The former leader of Team Magma just hoped that everything would be over for good soon and he could retreat to his place in the benches, stop being a fucking eyesore for those who would gladly strangle him to death in that very place and moment.

Now he sat there in the dark, the last remaining person in the ceremony room where Archie's coffin rested, waiting for it to be transported to the crematory where he would be turned into a nice pile of ashes, ready to be thrown in the ocean or wherever. He felt his stomach twist and wriggle. He hadn't eaten anything. He hadn't had any sleep. Not that he felt hungry or sleepy at all. He just felt as if guilt was eating him away from the inside.

"Why did you do that?" He raised his look from the floor, his head feeling too numb to actually be alarmed by that sudden, broken voice. Shelly stood there, hair smartly tied in a bun and lacking her usual blue streaks. She was dressed in a simple black dress and leaned relaxed against the door frame as if she was just having a casual chat about poptart recipes.

"Shelly, I-"

She walked over the altar, and Maxie noticed her knees were actually shaking. She, too, was tired of pretending everything would be okay. "Those where Archie's words. Over his left clavicle. Thought you might wanted to know."

“ _Oh_.” Maxie opened wide his eyes as he suddenly recognised the words he himself last pronounced in front of Archie. So it was a mutual thing then. The redhead didn't know what to think about it. He didn't want to, he felt like he would enter a downward spiral if he thought too much about what could have been. He rolled up his left sleeve, staring blankly at his mark. 'I told you so' was still legible, as if nothing had happened.

Maxie averted his eyes, looking at the elegant chestnut coffin behind him. He had seen his corpse one last time before it had been closed. The black suit he donned and that neat, slick hairstyle didn't fit the man at all, he sure would have made a fuss about the idea of wearing that guise the day of his funeral.

Everyone had commented with tears in their eyes how he looked as if he was sleeping. "Guess you had to been there, maybe see him die in your arms," had thought Maxie bitterly as he ran a hand along his cold cheek and messed his tamed beard a bit. That way it looked better on him. Natural, vivacious.

Almost alive.

"I killed him."

Maxie's lips trembled. He bit down on them until he felt the metallic taste of blood in the tip of his tongue. Those words had been struggling to come out of his throat for days then. It felt like opening the floodgates of a dam that had been dangerously on the verge of bursting, releasing everything in three simple words laden with self-loathing and bitterness. He gritted his teeth and dug his nails on the palm of his hands until it hurt, barely managing to choke back the tears from rolling down his cheeks.

"He gave his life for you. Don't blame yourself for his stupid ass decisions."

'Saving you was his last stupid ass decision,' in other words. It felt like adding salt to the wound, but since pain was almost everything Maxie could feel at the moment, he let her words simmer inside him.

That's why he was there at the moment. He should be the one inside that coffin, unaware of all the pain he'd caused and still kept causing. He rubbed his wrist against his watering eyes, hoping that the tears would do something to erase the mark, even though he knew it was impossible to get rid of something so important in his life.

Even after his death, it was impossible to get rid of Archie.

The ire in his heart was replaced by a much colder, calmer feeling. He buried his face on his knees. Shelly sat next to him in the stairs leading to the coffin. Feeling like she’d been a bit harsh to him, she wrapped an arm around his shoulder, closing his eyes and shushing him as he felt him sob quietly, joining him on his silent mourning.

"Do you know how many nights he's woke up screaming your name, completely shivering after horrible nightmares he insisted were nothing?" Maxie looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "He just became more and more deterred to continue his plans as he began understanding."

"That's why, over the last months..."

"...it's been awfully easy for you to frustrate our plans? We weren’t the same without a motivated leader." Now they would never be the same. He was gone.

"What did he understood? He was about to tell me, but-"

"Let's say he had: one, a plan that could potentially backfire in so many ways it was inevitable it would bring destruction and death; two, a sworn enemy who would show up wherever he would go - including the Seafloor Cavern; and three, a soulmate, someone of unknown identity that would die asking pathetically why had he done what he'd done. He wasn't an idiot, Maxie, he knew just as much as you how to add up."

“What you should have suspected since the moment you saw your mark as well,” Maxie finished the sentence in his head. There it was again, that hot rush through his veins, burning him alive from the inside. He covered his face with an open hand, gritting his teeth viciously, furious with himself.

"He knew he was going to die... for me."

He couldn’t spend a second more in the same room as his dead soulmate. He almost jumped as he stood up, leaving Shelly behind in the room as he closed loudly the door.

He knew it. He knew it, he knew it, he knew it. Yet, he did it.

"Hey, boss- Maxie, are you okay?" asked Tabitha, standing up from their chair next to Matt's and following him a few steps before he muttered, calm but cold.

"I need to be alone."

Courtney caught up with them right as Maxie left the building, decided to follow him. but Tabitha barred her out of the redhead's way, directing her a saddened 'not now' look. It was an understatement he was going through so much at the moment, so both of them focused on seeing to Matt and Shelly the best way they could.

Outside, the sky was an ugly shade of grey, and it was starting to drizzle. Maxie didn't care about the light rain. He took out of his pocket a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, lit one with trembling hands and gave a long puff, letting smoke fill up his lungs and somehow numb his insides. He felt how the heat in his veins and the violent pounding on his temples wore off as nicotine managed to calm him down.

The Magma ex-leader even felt thankful for the bit of rain that was starting to soak his hair and clothes; that would provide a bit of ailment to the mild droughts that Groudon - that _he_ wrought, the redhead thought as he watched tiny droplets fall over dry grass. Even the sky seemed to mourn quietly Archie’s death on that day.

He closed his eyes as he looked up to the sky and exhaled, taking off his glasses. Cruel irony. That’s all Maxie could think of that described… well, everything.

He reminded how hopeful everyone looked after that little kid had saved them all. He saw their eyes shine as the looked at the clear skies, he saw happy parents falling to their knees as they knew everything would be okay for their families, he saw happy soulmates cry as they hugged their most precious loved one close to them, never letting them go.

Tabitha and Courtney, in an attempt to cheer him up, had repeated over and over how there would come a day when there would be a bit of hope for Maxie too, a day when everyone would even learn to forgive him and he would smile again.

But he didn’t believe any of that.

Not now that he was gone forever.

 


End file.
